This paper is a critique of problem-based learning and focuses on, first, the concept of life as problem-governed and professional practice as problem-solving; and, second, the utility of problem-based learning as a pedagogical approach in pre-professional training. The paper suggests that a problem-based approach to professional education is…

The cognitive processes students use in doing the 1996 science assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were studied using two booklets from the 1993 NAEP science field test. Blocks of items from these booklets, a hands-on task block and either a conceptual/problem solving block or a theme block, were administered to 16…

This study involved the development and preliminary assessment of an intervention derived from contemporary social-cognitive theory to train academically underprepared college students in academic volitional control strategies, as implied by theory and research on volition and research on academic self-regulation. In this pre-post comparison…

The degree to which performance assessments meet their dual mandate to evaluate student learning and inform instructional practice is not adequately addressed through traditional concerns for reliability and validity. A possible approach is suggested for examining the cognitive activity students engage in during a performance assessment. The…

A framework is presented for library instruction that integrates learning in the cognitive and affective domains. A study is reported that supports such a framework. Central to this instruction is the use of an overall strategy called FOCUS, FORMAT, FIND, and EVALUATE. The study compared the effects of two methods of academic library instruction…

Classrooms in our nation's schools reflect an "assembly-line model" of work in which the educational product is a set of students' performance and abilities learned in school. Contemporary educators are critical of the old factory model and seek to replace it by classrooms whose goals are to learn and to develop knowledge. Studied is the…

This document contains plenary and contributed papers presented at the seventh PME meeting, held near Jerusalem, Israel in July 1983. Three plenary papers focused on implicit models in solving problems, discussions with teachers and children, and heuristics. Contributed papers were classified under seven headings: learning theories…

This publication contains a selection of science education research papers, beginning with an overview of trends in science education cognitive developmental research and theory in the United Kingdom. Papers that follow focus on developments in studies of thinking and reasoning, including work on concept mapping and conceptual change. Closely…

The papers presented at the 1989 National Educational Computing Conference focused on ways of using technology to improve educational quality. Topics of the 50 papers and more than 120 abstracts provided in these proceedings include applications of artificial intelligence and the development of expert systems; authoring systems; using the computer…

This issue of the journal contains abstracts and critical comments for ten published reports of research in mathematics education. The reports concern teaching probability and estimation of measurements through microcomputer games, mental addition, use of calculators at the intermediate level, logical reasoning hierarchies, two approaches to the…

A study of three first grade teachers, who were interviewed and observed in the classroom setting, demonstrates a link between teachers' plans for action that they have developed over years of teaching and their routine management of students during reading. Both management and instructional goals, embedded in teacher beliefs about learning and…

This issue contains abstracts and critical comments for published reports of research in mathematics education. The reports are concerned with: (1) relationships between class size, teaching practices, and student achievement; (2) sex differences related to attitudes; (3) comprehension of mathematical relationships expressed in graphs; (4) effect…

This paper reports findings on the academic and intellectual characteristics of undergraduate students attending two midwestern state universities, and outlines specific learning strategies and instructional strategies to alleviate the academic problems of skill-deficient undergraduates. In the first study, the reading performance of 128 college…

This issue of "Investigations in Mathematics Education" contains: (1) a review of E. Fischbein's book "The Intuitive Sources of Probabilistic Thinking in Children;" (2) nine abstracts of research studies in mathematics education; (3) a list (by EJ number) of mathematics education research studies reported in the January to…

A study tested the hypothesis that spoken language has a strong direct influence on the encoding process, and that speakers of nonstandard dialects have a different set of problems with the written language and make identifiably different errors than do speakers of standard dialect. The subjects, 13 standard and 13 nonstandard dialect speakers…